UPPER DARBY — This year will mark Fran Matthews’ 30th as a Phillies season ticket holder in one form or another.

During his time at Veterans Stadium, he watched his team finish out of the playoffs 19 times in 21 years while enduring the likes of Toby Borland, Tom Foley and Carlton Loewer.

The Citizens Bank Park era has been far kinder to the Matthews, who did not hesitate to renew the full season plan he shares with fellow Upper Darby firefighter Vince Gasparro and a handful of others.

While he would prefer to be paying the $45 per ticket he shelled out when he first moved into Section 120, Matthews is OK — not thrilled, but OK — with today’s $65 price tag.

Advertisement

“If I were paying $130 a game for the ’96 Phillies, yes, that would be tough,” he said. “But I’m not. This team has taken all the profit that has fallen into their lap and pumped it back into the product.

“That’s what makes me a happy camper.”

After a disappointing 2012, the Phillies have seen a chunk of their season ticket base disappear. Overall sales are down about 500,000, compared to this time last season.

Since they have been tops in Major League Baseball attendance the past three years, that means the Phillies have done spectacularly, rather than mind-bogglingly, well at the box office this offseason.

“Things are different. We were 81-81 last year. We understand it,” John Weber, Phillies vice president of sales and ticketing operations, said Thursday.”This time last year we would have had 15 games sold out and been telling fans to buy early.

“We are still encouraging fans to buy early, but now we have tickets available for 81 of the 82 games, including the April and May games that have been pretty well sold out by this time the last three years.”

Weber said the Phillies have sold about 2.6 million tickets for 2013 and will start the year with around 24,500 season ticket holders, down from a team-imposed cap of 28,000 the previous three seasons.

“That we have done so well is a tribute to our loyal fans,” he said. “We have more inventory this season, which means there are opportunities out there for fans who may have gotten shut out the last few years.”

Last season, the team drew 3,565,718 fans to Citizens Bank Park, which will open for a 10th season Friday afternoon when the Phillies host the Kansas City Royals.

While season ticket holders did not experience a hike in ticket prices this season, the Phillies have moved to a tiered pricing model for individual game sales. Ten of the most coveted games on the schedule will be priced higher than last season, and 10 of the less enticing ones will come in a few dollars lower. The remaining 61 games will retail for the same prices as 2012.

“We are charging a few dollars more for some of the more popular games, like the home opener or a game against the Red Sox,” Weber said. “And some other games will go down a few dollars so we will have something that interests the people who might want to come down for a Tuesday night game in April or September.”

Weber said the Phillies have stayed away from a “dynamic pricing” model that has been embraced by more than 20 other teams in Major League Baseball.

“A lot of teams change their ticket prices up or down based on demand,” he said. “If the team has won several games in a row or Strasburg is pitching, the prices go up.”

Gasparro, who started going to Phillies games while his father, Vince Sr., was shooting them at Connie Mack Stadium as a cameraman for WFIL, said it would be tough to walk away from his tickets and his favorite sport.

“Obviously you hate to see the prices go up, whether it’s tickets or concessions or parking, but it’s a lot easier to handle when the team is winning and you’re having fun,” he said. “The Terry Francona years were painful, and then Larry Bowa came in and kind of recharged the gang. With a couple of exceptions, things have been pretty good ever since, and I had the privilege of being there for Game 5 of the 2008 World Series with my son.”

The Phillies have had diminishing returns on the field every year since, but Matthews and Gasparro feel good about the team’s prospects in 2013.

“I am excited to see Utley and Howard back to start the season and I like Freddy Galvis and think he’s maturing,” Gasparro said. “Everybody is disappointed with Haliday so far — and it would be nice to know if he’s healthy, injured or just trying a new approach — but overall the pitching looks pretty good. And while I have not been a Dom Brown fan, he’s doing very well right now. Hopefully he can earn his spot and hold onto it.”

Unlike some Phillies fans, Matthews credited general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. for not going after a marquee free agent this offseason.

“I can’t criticize anything he’s done,” Matthews said. “We have no idea what the chemistry is like in that locker room and that’s the GM’s job, to make sure all the pieces fit. I’m not sure it would have been a good idea to put Josh Hamilton in the same room as Utley, Howard and Rollins.”

Matthews said the demand for his seats would have to dry up among his season ticket partners and in the secondary market before he considered giving them up.

“As long as I can unload them without taking a loss, I’m okay,” he said.